How would a World War 2 era Commando Infantry fair up in a fight with an infantry of regular marines today,?

Question

without the use of sophisticated missile guides sytems or sophisticated weapons from the Marines of today?

Please give different scenarios;

1. What if the ww2 commandos had double the people.
2. What if the ww2 commandos were going up against marine recruites of today.

Answer 1

well. wether the ww2 commandos had double the people or not they would still have more bravory and courage then the marine recruits we have today. they were raised in 2 different times. back then they grew up hunting and so on. now most people grew up playing videogames and peoples mothers yelling at them for having the thought of playing with toy guns... but then again the marine recruits have better training now... but id have to side with the ww2 commandos

Answer 2

The scenarios you give aren't really the issue-- the weaponry is-- and you've removed that from the equation. Obviously, a modern Marine combat battalion would wipe one from the 1940s off the map, due to superior weaponry. And, if you handed current Marines the weapons of fifty years ago, they wouldn't have trained in how to use them... just as would be the case if you toom Marines from World War II and gave them modern weaponry.

That said, I would propose that the scenarios would still need changing--

If you took a battalion of Marines in, say, April in 1945, and instead of dropping them on the Kadena landing beaches of Okinawa you instead let them get well-rested and sent them off to the "future Okinawa" (ie: 2006) for this 'competition', they would probably be a better fighting unit than one of the Marine battalions in the 3D Marine Division currently serving in Okinawa. Why? Because they were experienced and bonded as a fighting unit, after Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Iwo Jima. They wouln't need 'double the people' under these circumstances.

On the other hand, if you pulled a Marine battalion from "now" that had just finished a year in Iraq's Anbar Province, the results would be different, and far more evenly matched (although the WWII combat Marines' battle experience might put them ahead).

An experienced, battle-hardened battalion of Marines from WWII would (obviously) walk right over an equal number of recruits-- any normal battalion, with experienced non-comms and officers, would. Recruits are, well, newbies. They'd learn, but they's die while they were doing it.

On the other hand, modern recruits would do far better than the recruits the Corps had during WWII. Modern recruits are volunteers-- many recruits in the 40s were draftees who didn't want to be there. The Marine Corps nowadays has the 'luxury' of turning down the worst specimens... fifty years ago they had to just give 'em rifles and hope they remembered which end was dangerous.

The bottom line-- your question implies that the Marines of today and those of WWII are somehow intrinsically different. They're not. They're Marines-- in Anbar Province or on Guadalcanal or at Belleau Wood. There are differences in equipment and weaponry, and some major sociological differences (the Corps reflects the society it defends), but the Corps itself remains the Corps. It does so because it consciously works at it-- in no other branch of the US military would it occur to the members to wish eachother Happy Birthday on the service's anniversary, as the Marines do every Nov. 10th, (complete with a cake-cutting ceremony at every Marine base or unit, wherever deployed!).

Answer 3

Given the same equipment, almost equal, but today's Marines would probably win on things like better training, nutrition, and tactics (standing on the shoulders of giants, here.)

Scenario 1: Our Marines are defeated, but not without doing a load of damage, possibly removing the commandos' operational capability.

Scenario 2: Huge victory for the WWII commandos.

Now, give my Marines some kevlar, M16s, and M203s, GPS, and air support, among other things, and there's no contest. The only units that stand a chance, man-for-man, are also US units.

Answer 4

I fthe marines of today had the same freedom to act as did the marines in ww2 they would fair very well.
When the marines of ww2 captured a greman town and advised them it was over they made dam sure they germans understood it was over . and that worked.
Were the marines/army/navy. air force of today in iraq given a free hand in iraq the war would be over in 30 days.
there would not be any insurgents. They would be dead.

Answer 5

Easy way to do this... Let the WW2 army make peace with the marines of today. No weapons or deaths. =)

Answer 6

the marines of today cuz they been trained more than the marines from WWII